Would You Like An Interactive Media Experience With Your 250-Calorie Corndog?

I had a rough day yesterday, and decided I deserved a corndog, so I popped over to the closest Wienerschnitzel, which is over across the bridge in Alameda.

Two things.

First, they have added the calorie counts to the menu for every item they sell. I do not like this trend. I know…I know…obesity epidemic, informed consumerism, corporate disclosure, blah blah blah. I get it. But, kind of like those warning labels on Windex bottles that say “Do Not Spray In Eyes,” I sort of feel like anyone who actually needs to be told that fast food is high in calories, probably can’t read or understand the warning sign anyway. (And what’s with those signs in the drive-thru about Braille menus available upon request? At the drive-thru! But, I digress….) And, personally, I prefer to have the sin value of my treats remain tucked aside in my peripheral awareness. But that’s me. I suppose I can appreciate the information in another context, where it doesn’t try to sully my corndog-specific indulgences. Actually, the 250 calories disclosed for the classic corn dog at Wienerschnitzel wasn’t a buzz kill for me. I thought it would be worse. If it had been a lot higher, it might have damaged my relationship to them, like when you find out how many past lovers your current paramour has had, and it’s a way bigger number than you imagined….it doesn’t help. I prefer that information remain cloaked in mystery.

Second, you’ll be glad to hear, we can now rest easy that we won’t be left alone with our own thoughts or the conversation of our dining partners for the four and a half minutes it takes to eat a corndog. No, thank goodness, they have added a media experience to the wrapper to keep us entertained and further justify our constant staring into our smartphones. Just scan the bar code, and it pulls up a video with a fascinating tale of corndog history:

Yes, I admit it, I did it. I scanned the code with my phone and watched the video while I was eating. Of course, I did. I was sitting in a Wienerschnitzel in Alameda, by myself, at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Monday. Plus, I was curious about what new corndog fact they might throw down. Turns out, not much. Plus, everyone knows that Wienerschnitzel didn’t invent the corndog; they didn’t open until 1961, and corndogs have been around since at least the 20’s. While I was watching it, all I could think was, how funny would it be to hack the link in their bar code and replace it with this way better corndog video (click here if the embedded video below doesn’t work):